JEDDAH, 18 May 2008 — Bupa Arabia for Cooperative Insurance Company started trading its shares on Tadawul yesterday. This was confirmed by Capital Market Authority (CMA).
Bupa Arabia is trading 16 million new shares representing 40 percent of its capital. The company is registered within the insurance sector with the symbol 8210, with an unrestricted price limit for the first day of trading only as per CMA regulations.
At the celebration of the fist day of trading, Bupa Managing Director Tal Nazer said that he expected Bupa shares to start trading extensively as a “unique” provider of health insurance that owns a huge stake in this vital sector serving more than half a million clients across the Kingdom. Inquiries suggest that the traders’ expectations of the share value are wide-ranging.
Listed under the new Commercial Registration number of 4030178881, Bupa Arabia for Cooperative Health insurance has a paid up capital of SR400 million.
Bupa Arabia IPO was over subscribed by 921 percent in March 2008, which involved over 2.5 million subscribers pumping SR1.4 billion. This outstanding performance clearly had a positive impact on the medical insurance sector in Saudi Arabia in particular and the Gulf Region at large.
Bupa Arabia has earned a number of awards including ‘the best insurance company’ from the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Furthermore, Bupa is the only Saudi company that has been granted the award for the ‘Best e-business’ in the Middle East Region,” Nazer said.
Bupa was established in 1997 as a joint venture between the Nazer Group and the Bupa Group. One of the largest international private health insurance companies, the Bupa Group serves more than eight million members in over 190 countries and employs over 46,000 worldwide. It is the leading health care provider in the UK, Spain, and Hong Kong and is growing rapidly in Australia, Thailand and Saudi Arabia. Recently, the Bupa Group further expanded its reach with the acquisition of AMEDEX, based in the United States.
“The Bupa Group follows a long-term strategy that aims to improve services and health care support by investing all of its profits back into the business to develop and improve the quality of its services,” he added.
